DANVILLE, Va. – The shopping carts used by customers at God's Storehouse are now cleaner, thanks to Averett facilities staff members, like Daniel Jones, who volunteered to clean them Monday.
"We wanted to help out the community and kind of jump in together to get more done at one time," Jones said.
God's Storehouse executive director Karen Harris says cleaning the carts is one of many things there's never enough time to do during the week.
"The tables up front that we use for various things. They get dirty and we never have time to clean that sort of stuff; cleaning out the refrigerators and the freezers," Harris said.
She believes the food bank will now be able to serve the community better.
"It just makes for a nicer facility. Nicer for us, nicer for our customers, nicer for our volunteers. So, it really does help us out a great deal," Harris said.
Local Americorps volunteers also helped out by sorting and organizing food.
The effort was organized by Rachel Covington and Averett's Center for Community Engagement and Career Competitiveness.
"They actually reached out to us, saying that they needed some help at this time of year, so we thought it was a great partnership with them for MLK Day of Service," Covington said.
The university's bigger goal, however, is to give back to the community on MLK Day each year to inspire others to get engaged.Â
"Right now, we have too many volunteers come in. So, that's a great problem to have," Covington said.
Harris said volunteers are always welcome, and needed, at the food bank.
"We'll probably be back again soon just because everybody wanted to do it," Jones said.
To volunteer at God's Storehouse, contact the food bank's assistant director, Emily Holder, at (434) 793-3663.